Byron Dorgan On The Beltway Establishment: "A Bunch Of Hogs At A Slop Pail"

God is great! Bill Moyers is back on PBS. The above clip features an interview with Byron Dorgan, the North Dakota populist who warned most strenuously about the sleazy corporatists-- of both parties-- repealing Glass-Steagall. That repeal is, undoubtedly, the most corrupt moment in American public life... at least since the 1920s. This was the one percent's bloodless coup against America. On May 6, 1999, every single Republican in the Senate (plus one conservative Democrat, Ernest Hollings) voted to give the country away to their corporate masters. It was signed by one of the worst corporatists American voters were ever bamboozled into elevating to the White House, multimillionaire-to-be Bill Clinton. It had passed the House July 1, 343-86, opposed by a tiny handful of nervous Republicans, like Ron Paul and Ray LaHood, plus 70 Democrats, mostly progressives like Tammy Baldwin (WI), Sherrod Brown (OH), Mike Capuano (MA), John Conyers (MI), Barney Frank (MA), Jesse Jackson, Jr (IL), Marcy Kaptur (OH), Dennis Kucinich (OH), Barbara Lee (CA), Jerry Nadler (NY), Bernie Sanders (VT), Maxine Waters (CA), Henry Waxman (CA)...

Among those voting for it were many of today's worst corporate whores, from Jim DeMint (R-SC), Harold Ford (D-TN), Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Joe Crowley (D-NY), Charlie Bass (R-NH), Tim Holden (D-PA), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Richard Burr (R-NC), Ron Kind (D-WI) and Buck McKeon (R-CA) to the leaders of the current GOP Inc., John Boehner (R-OH), Paul Ryan (R-WI), John Kasich (R-OH), David Vitter (R-LA) and Fred Upton (R-MI). It was the worst moment in contemporary American history-- far more deadly to the nation than 9-11-- and all of these people profited enormously from their vote.

The other night I had dinner with the chief of staff of one of the most powerful members of Congress. This staffer has been working in DC for almost two decades and was absolutely positive that things are unredeemably corrupt now, worse than it's ever been, and that the Democrats are not one iota better than the Republicans when it comes to corruption. That's how filthy Washington is now. And getting worse by the hour. Listen to Dorgan's answers to Moyers' questions carefully. I listened twice, and it was more horrific the second time. It brought to mind a paragraph from David Korten's book Agenda For A New Economy:

Capitalism is the institutional embodiment of greed, and Wall Street is its contemporary institutional manifestation. It operates by the moral code of an organized crime syndicate and subverts the values and institutions of both markets and democracy. Far from being ashamed of its ways, it champions them as virtues. What Wall Street considers virtues are actually the seven deadly sins identified by Christian tradition

It gets worse. The other day I tried introducing you to Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire low-life gangster currently brazenly trying to buy the presidency for a notorious Washington whore. Friday, Brian Ross revealed even more about Adelson than I had been able to dig up. He'll probably be killed, or at minimum sued.

The casino company run by the principal financial backer of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, Sheldon Adelson, has been under criminal investigation for the last year by the Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission for alleged bribery of foreign officials, according to corporate documents.

In a separate civil lawsuit, a former executive of the company has alleged that Adelson ordered him to keep quiet about sensitive issues at the Sands casinos on the Chinese island of Macau, including the casinos' alleged "involvement with Chinese organized crime groups, known as Triads, connected to the junket business." The triads-- Chinese organized crime syndicates-- are allegedly involved in organizing high stakes gambling junkets for wealthy Chinese travelers.

In its filings with the SEC, Adelson's company says it became aware of the investigation in February 2011 when it received a subpoena from the SEC requesting "documents relating to its compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act." The company said it "intends to cooperate with the investigation," which it said may have been triggered by the allegations in the lawsuit by Steven C. Jacobs, a former Sands executive who says he helped run the Macau operation. The federal investigation was first reported last year by Las Vegas newspapers and the financial press.

...Adelson has become a symbol of the new, no-holds-barred environment for campaign money, with recent Supreme Court rulings opening the door for one wealthy individual to single-handedly bankroll one of the costliest aspects of a political campaign: television advertising. Adelson, who is one of America's richest people, has the means to do so. The billionaire owns 49 percent of the Sands casino company and as chairman, is directly involved in its operations. Its operations in Macau have made the Sands the world's leading gambling operation.

But the company operates where corruption is described as "a major and growing problem," according to a 2011 report from the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

"The growth of gambling in Macau, fueled by money from mainland Chinese gamblers and the growth of U.S.-owned casinos, has been accompanied by widespread corruption, organized crime and money laundering," the commission found.

The Venetian-Macao, a casino owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, was also the subject of a reported "sex-trade crackdown" that occurred in 2010 on the same day Adelson arrived on the island for meetings with government leaders in Macau, according to published accounts in 2010. Chinese press reported that authorities found more than 100 prostitutes inside the casino.

Jacobs alleges in his lawsuit that Adelson demanded that Jacobs refrain from telling the corporate board of Sands China about issues including "junkets and triads." He also alleges that Adelson wanted to investigate high-ranking Macau officials to provide him "leverage" to thwart any initiatives that would hurt the company.

"The triads are making a ton of money off the gambling industry," said Ko-lin Chin, a Rutgers University criminal justice professor who is one of the leading experts on Chinese organized crime. "They are still there, they are still very active."

Sands corporate spokesman Ron Reese told ABC News he did not wish to comment, instead pointing to earlier statements that Adelson has made about the case.

Adelson said at the gaming forum last year the lawsuit "is pure threatening, blackmailing and extortion" and said the case created a "foundation of lies" upon which the subsequent investigations have been based. He told the Wall Street Journal in October "we have a substantial list of reasons why Steve Jacobs was fired for cause and interestingly he has not refuted a single one of them. Instead, he has attempted to explain his termination by using outright lies and fabrications which seem to have their origins in delusion."

Last year, a judge rejected a motion by Las Vegas Sands to dismiss the case.

What's happened to our country?

Highway safety be damned: The lame ducks of the Bush regime are looking a lot more like cornered rattlesnakes

Howie has written before about the Bush Department of Transportation's unrelenting push for a "pilot program" to allow Mexican long-haul trucks into the U.S. with essentially no safety standards or requirements or oversight. (The illustration is "borrowed" from The Conscience of 294, "an unofficial website for the members of Teamsters Local 294, Albany, NY.")

This is an important highway safety issue, and under normal circumstances we might want to talk more about it. Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances, and there is a more urgent reason to revisit the issue. It has escalated. Now it's a question of the Bush regime, going into its final year (finally!), moving toward outright imperial government, openly and explicitly flouting the law.

As Howie subsequently reported, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) took the lead in passing an amendment terminating that pilot program--amassing 74 votes in the Senate!--for inclusion in the Omnibus Budget Bill, which was signed by Chimpy the Prez and everything. However, the DoT is going right ahead, as TeamsterPower reports on DailyKos:

DOT to Congress: F@#K You! We'll do what we want.

by TeamsterPower

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) authored a provision that scrapped the pilot program allowing Mexican long-haul trucks into the United States. It was included in the Omnibus Budget Bill that was signed by President Bush just before the Christmas break.

So far so good, right?

Well, last week the Department of Transportation announced it will continue the pilot program anyway. And this, my friends, is called breaking a federal law.

The DOT, is trying to get around this bipartisan mandate by saying the law says that funds will not be used to establish a pilot program. "Well," they say, "we don’t need to establish a pilot program; we already have one ... So keep em rolling!"

But the U.S. Senate Legislative Counsel says otherwise:

...The phrase "establish" was to be construed in its broadest context and that such a broad construction would include implementation. In fact, the legislative history in the Senate indicates that it was intended to preclude the carrying out of any demonstration program, including the pilot program put into effect in September 2007

Senator Dorgan is pissed off and had about enough of the DOT. He penned a letter to the department yesterday telling them that their statement to continue the program –despite the law scrapping it – "is both arrogant and wrong," which we categorically agree with.

TeamsterPower goes on to talk about the "huge safety issues that top the list of chief motivations behind Dorgan writing the amendment in the first place," and I encourage you to read on.

My concern here is the alarming signal that, as the Bush regime finally waddles into lame-duck status, it may in fact be throwing off all perceived limitations on its power, and may plan to govern in the belief that it is truly accountable to no one.

Let's see what Senator Dorgan's letter to the DoT turns up. In the meantime, if you choose to be very afraid, I don't blame you.

#